Fast cars, mega homes, $500k watch collection: Inside rock star lifestyles of QLD’s real estate agents

Today’s top real estate agents sell more than squillion-dollar properties with jaw-dropping commissions. They sell a rock star lifestyle that is increasingly the envy of anyone hungry to make a fast buck, and zip around town in a $300,000 luxury car, flash a $150,000 gold watch, and relax over a $6000 bottle of Bordeaux’s finest … because they can. People who have lost their jobs during the pandemic are among those flocking to the Real Estate Institute of Queensland for their real estate licences, with the peak body recording bumper increases in enrolments month on month since mid-2020. “A lot of people got really shaken by COVID and are looking to take control of their own fate, and with real estate, you get out of it as much as you put in, unlike most nine-to-five jobs,” an REIQ spokesman says. Simon Caulfield gets it. At 34, he is one of Brisbane’s most successful agents, and scored his first million-dollar commission at 26. Among his trophy sales this year are seven riverfront apartments totalling $42 million at 11 Thornton St, Kangaroo Point, beside the Walan residential tower at 2 Scott St where he lives with wife and business partner Courtney Caulfield in their own $4.5 million pad. Their four-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment – purchased off the plan in 2018 after a Texan family failed to settle – boasts uninterrupted views of the river and ever-evolving CBD. It has a $250,000 wine cellar that boasts 60 bottles of Grange, two fridges of Dom Perignon champagne, 1996 Sassicaia “Super Tuscan” and Bordeaux-grown Chateau Petrus red at $6000 a pop. Simon Caulfield and his wife Courtney Caulfield are a part of Queensland's elite top real estate agents. The couple, who’ve been together for 10 years, also have a $500,000 collection of watches, including Simon’s favourite – a rare Patek Philippe Calatrava 5180/1R timepiece, also worn by Irish UFC fighter Conor “Notorious” McGregor. “I was pretty fortunate to find it,” Simon says. “I was in Dubai and flew to London literally for six hours to pick it up. “I buy watches as rewards – every time I hit a monumental milestone (in business) – and when I wear it I think, ‘I own this because I worked really hard.’ “ Courtney Caulfield, 30, left a career in law four years ago to join her husband at the Place Kangaroo Point real estate agency, and between them they write up to $150 million in sales annually, with the support of their team. In 2019, when Courtney was named No.1 individual agent with Place – a title she’s retained – she splurged on a Hublot Big Bang rose gold and diamond timepiece worth more than $50,000. Simon calls it her “rock star watch”. But for the Kingscliff-raised former gymnast, who adores the designer labels Fendi and Valentino, the real thrill of being in real estate is “seeing sellers and buyers so happy”. “It’s a great experience and much better than being a lawyer and sitting behind a desk and churning it out,” Courtney says, having notched up $4 million in gross settled commission in early April. Simon says if there is a week when the couple does not each work 80 hours, it’s because there’s a public holiday. “The perception is it is easy to make money,” he says. “The younger generation, in particular, want to be the next Elon Musk (Tesla) or Whitney Wolfe (Bumble) but they don’t want to work for it. “I’m always getting messages from people saying, ‘I’d love to be able to drive a Mercedes-Benz like you,’ but what they don’t know is when I started in real estate at 21, I couldn’t put fuel in my motorbike to drive home and I used to sleep under the desk in my office. “I’d go down to Coles at Merthyr Village (New Farm) and buy five tins of Black and Gold baked beans for a dollar.” NED-3721-Agents-of-Influence While the Airlie Beach-raised agent appreciates he drives in style these days, he says it’s also about practicality. “It’s a big, black three-tonne Mercedes G class, and $300,000 is a lot of money – the price of a small home in Park Ridge, right?” Simon says. “But I don’t drive it because Kim Kardashian’s got one. It fits my golf clubs and my flying gear.” While he’s on track to gain his private pilot’s licence in May, adding a million-dollar Cirrus SR22 plane to the couple’s high-end acquisitions isn’t on the cards. “Something tells me spending a million dollars on property is a better investment,” Simon says. Over in New Farm, on a prized 1037sq m parcelof hilltop land, one of Brisbane’s most historic homes is alive with the squeals and giggles of young children having the time of their lives. Monty, Lulu and Ziggy Lancashire don’t realise how fortunate they are to live in heritage-listed Blenheim House, as they race through its wide hallways, climb on its white balustrades and romp in its manicured gardens. How could they – they’re only six, four and two. But their father, Matt Lancashire, knows. And he knows how hard he worked to buy the property, two years ago, for a nudge over $4 million. Matt Lancashire from Ray White is one of Queensland's top real estate agents. For this former electrician – who’d never considered real estate until childhood friend Haesley Cush was desperate for agents at Ray White New Farm, and took on Lancashire with zero experience in 2006 – it’s one of the rewards of a career he reckons is anything but glamorous. “We’re glorified telemarketers, but most people have a false perception of what it’s like, which is why the dropout rate is so high,” Lancashire says. “We are paid to pick up the phone, get people to sell, negotiate deals – which is the fun part, but getting the business is actually the hardest,” says Lancashire, 40. “People think every real estate agent is a dirtbag, and there are a lot out there who aren’t doing the right thing, but those at the top are – that’s why the best are the best, and the rest are the rest.” Lancashire proudly holds the record for Brisbane’s most expensive house sale: $18.48 million for 1 Leopard St, Kangaroo Point, in March 2017. (In early 2021, the clifftop mansion was bought by Brisbane Broncos chairman and Ord Minnett CEO Karl Morris for just under $16 million.) In February 2017, Lancashire sold and settled vacant land at 80-86 Oxlade Drive, New Farm, for an eye-watering $17.35 million. In 2017, he and Cush merged their businesses and now run Ray White agencies at New Farm, Spring Hill, Bulimba and East Brisbane, with business partners Scott Darwon and Brandon Wortley. Lancashire says he and wife Caitlyn, 32, like to fly under the radar and live simply in their cherished New Farm community. But there is no denying there are perks when you’re one of the city’s best closers. The family of five travels in an ever-changing procession of top-of-the-range Mercedes-Benzes – without paying a cent. Earlier this month it was an AMG GLS63 V8 luxury SUV; now it’s the new S-class saloon, thanks to Lancashire’s ambassadorship for the German marque. As part of the deal he’s had since 2019, he provides service training for the car sales teams, emphasising the importance of relationships and repeat business. He also attends Mercedes-Benz client events, often bringing along his own VIP clients in what amounts to a high-end database exchange. This St Laurence’s College old boy has become an influencer in the true sense of the Instagram phenomenon. Not only does he attract property buyers and sellers through his posts to 18,700 followers, he sells cars, “and lots of them”, via slick videos of luxury homes that just happen to have a Merc or two in the driveway. It’s product placement reminiscent of a James Bond film. But aside from a smattering of contemporary art, by the likes of David Bromley and Miranda Skoczek, adorning the walls of Blenheim House, Lancashire insists he’s not a big spender. “I wear $14 Uniqlo T-shirts on weekends, and I’m a bit OCD,” he admits. “I buy 10 T-shirts that are exactly the same and five pairs of jeans that are exactly the same, and that’s all I wear, so I actually don’t spend a lot of money on material things. “Property is my gig, and I like buying investment and commercial properties; it’s what I know and what I love.” At just 25, Joseph Lordi is often branded a young gun in the real estate game. And while he might drive a $110,000 BMW M2 Competition coupe – which car reviewers have described as a “boy toy of unsurpassed excellence” – Lordi owns it outright through a seven-year slog to become his own boss. Just weeks ago he launched Chapter Estate Groups, so named because when one door closes on a home, another opens, heralding new experiences. The bold move comes after a string of successes, including the sale of a mansion at Raby Bay last August for $8.5 million, and two record-breaking $4 million-plus sales at Chandler in 2019. “When I started out I lost a lot of business because I was young, but I also won business because I was young and people were willing to give me a go,” Lordi says. He did six months of a business degree at Griffith University after graduating from St Joseph’s College, Gregory Terrace, but the ambitious 18-year-old was itching to get into the workforce. Lordi cut his teeth with Ray White, Raine & Horne, Sotheby’s and McGrath, and now, in his own agency, eschews expensive suits for a more casual look: chinos and a collared shirt, jacket optional. “I feel wearing a $3000 suit is a bit over the top,” he says. “When I turn up to a client’s house they are usually wearing shorts and thongs, so there’s no need to be extravagant.” Aside from cars – in January he bought a 1989 BMW E30 to “knock about in on weekends” – Lordi says he only likes to spend money if it’s on his business, based at Stones Corner. While Chapter currently has one team member, Katylyn Johnson, whom Lordi met at McGrath, it is poised for expansion in a red-hot market. “Agencies don’t sell property – agents do,” Lordi says. “And with everything moving online, it’s increasingly about personal relationships.” The glittering eight-carat aquamarine and diamond ring on Simone Weigall’s right hand is a constant reminder of where she started and how far she’s come. Before leaping into real estate in her late 20s, the St Aidan’s old girl ran a takeaway shop in an Underwood industrial estate for six years. “That certainly was not glamorous,” laughs the 49-year-old, who works alongside Judy Goodger at Place New Farm. “I was cooking 45kg of hot chips a day, but needed a change. “It was May 1999, and with the boom in early 2000, pretty much anyone could sell (real estate). “We were like order takers, really. We just turned up and properties sold for ridiculous prices.” Then came the global financial crisis of 2007-09, which battered the market, but not Weigall’s spirit. Coming out of the GFC and marking her 10 years in real estate, she rewarded herself with the rock on her finger. For her 20th work anniversary, it was a diamond tennis bracelet. “Jewellery is my weakness – oh, and art,” says Weigall, who drives a denim-blue Mercedes-Benz CLA 200. In her spacious apartment hang works by contemporary artist David Larwill, whose pieces fetch up to $45,000 at auction, Richard Dunlop and Bundit Puangthong. “Yes, I’m successful,” says Weigall, who has sold almost $1 billion worth of property in her career, “but it hasn’t happened overnight. “My advice to anyone wanting to get into real estate is be prepared to put in the hours and make lots of phone calls, keep up your network, get a presence on social media, and don’t for a second think it’s all glitz and glamour.” Download the Courier Mail app